Angela Gibson feels fortunate to have a bed in a Toronto homeless shelter. “People are being turned away,” Gibson, told the Star one day before Wednesday’s emotional city council debate on how city officials respond to an ongoing surge in demand for beds that has shelters, drop-ins and respite centres bursting at the seams. Before she into an emergency shelter Gibson, 54, relied on Sistering drop-in, where women sleep in chairs or mats on the floor. Sistering felt safe, but is chaotic and those women need proper beds, she said. Article Continued BelowBut council rejected a bid to go further, to urgently add 1,000 new shelter beds, and to ask the Department of National Defence to immediately open the “cavernous” armouries at Moss Park and Fort York with overflow beds — a request DND said Wednesday it would welcome.

Source: thestar December 07, 2017 00:47 UTC